Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Making a Cell's Contents Bold within a Macro.

Making a Cell's Contents Bold within a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 16, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


If you are writing macros using VBA, it is not uncommon to process data and place the results of your processing into cells in a worksheet. If desired, you can also make the results in a bold typeface so that they stand out. You do this by setting the Bold property of the Font object for a selection.

For instance, if you wanted to make the contents of cell A1 bold, you could use the following in your macro:

Cells(1, 1).Font.Bold = True

Likewise, if you wanted to make the currently selected cell bold, you could use the following code:

Selection.Font.Bold = True

If you wanted to explicitly turn off the bold attribute of a particular cell, all you need to do is change True to False in the foregoing examples.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8775) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Making a Cell's Contents Bold within a Macro.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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